For eight years, Alexandros Massavetas roamed the historical neighborhoods of Istanbul, uncovering forgotten churches, demolished synagogues, Byzantine cisterns filled with garbage, and the ruins of a very recent history.
"The City of the Absent" is a journey through Istanbul of the "others": the Greeks, the Levantines, the Jews, the Armenians, the Russians. Those who lived in this place for millennia and shaped its urban landscape and culture but today shine through their absence.
This is a journey through space and time, an attempt to document the history of Istanbul's cosmopolitanism, Byzantine and Ottoman. It also represents a struggle to account for what remains in today's Istanbul of 17 million from a multinational and multilingual past that characterized the City during the one and a half millennium it was the imperial capital.
In this book, Alexandros Massavetas connects the vibrant and lively world of the historical neighborhoods of the City with that of their historic inhabitants. In doing so, he restores the historical and social link of a gap that seems, justifiably, insurmountable to the visitor.
At the same time, however, he escapes the trap of lamenting a lost past. Setting aside nostalgia and melancholy, he surrenders to the magic of today's City that surrounds him. He revels in the joy of discovery, loves the little worlds he encounters and their inhabitants, and experiences the anxiety of their impending end.
This time, the end takes the form of an "urban renewal" program - a new wave sweeping across Istanbul, destroying neighborhoods, monuments, lives, professions, and centuries-old habits.
